Facebook reverses move to censor ‘napalm girl’ photo

SACRAMENTO: Facebook on Friday reversed its decision to censor an iconic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl escaping a napalm bombing, after the move set off a wave of outrage, including from Norway’s prime minister.

“Because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance, the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal, so we have decided to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed,” a spokesperson for the world’s largest social network said in an email to AFP.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg earlier on Friday posted the photograph, which the US social network says violates its nudity rules.

Taken by photographer Nick Ut Cong Huynh for the Associated Press, the 1972 picture of a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack is considered one of the war’s defining images. It was honored with the Pulitzer Prize.

Solberg’s post was taken down several hours later, deleted by Facebook, she said. She said Facebook was seeking “to edit our common history.”